Ok kids, I just recently received an email from an Eggxpert asking me why my initial blog post only has a few words or a short paragraph followed by a link that says "Read More" and the answer is actually very simple. 

If you navigate to the main page of my blog you will see all my posts from the last 6 months or so.  There are two or three pages of them to go through if you really feel like it.  I noticed after I posted my first four or five blogs that on my main page, each entry would display the entire entry.  This made the main blog page rather long, and rather annoying to go through to find a post that was more interesting to the reader.  So to clean things up a bit, I started making all of my full blog post to blog pages and then just making links to them from the standard blog post.  This cleaned up my main page a lot.  When I started adding pictures to the entry's it also made things a bit more colorful. 

So for those of you wondering why I do things the way I do, you now have your answer.  It keeps things nice and neat, and easy to navigate through on my main blog page.  Mmmmmm'kay?

Have you bought a virus yet?  Know anybody who has? 

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Well in my last blog post I talked about my recent positive experience with Vista Ultimate 64bit.  Now I must talk about a negative experience I go through nearly every day with Windows XP. 

When was the last time you installed XP from scratch?  Being that the bulk of my job is fixing peoples broken and messed up computers, I tend to install Windows XP from scratch pretty often.  A year or two ago when I would do a full new install of XP it would usually mean about 85 updates including all hardware and non critical updates.  One or two years ago that was a lot.  But now I have a computer up on my bench that is in the process of installing all of it's Windows XP updates.  So far it has downloaded 105 updates and is currently installing number 42 out of those 105 updates. 

One Hundred and Five updates people, that is a freakin lot.  Now I could be wrong, but the way I understand it, when Microsoft releases a new service pack for a Windows operating system, that service pack usually includes most if not all of the latest updates available on the Windows Update website.  For example, right now if you do a fresh install of Windows SP2, you already have all the critical and non critical updates from the original XP, XP SP1 and all the updates up until the release of SP2.  But just because you installed the latest version of the operating system doesn't mean new updates haven't been released since your copy of Windows was released.  So after your done installing the operating system you need to head over to the Windows Update website and get all the most recent updates that your system doesn't have yet. 

Now do you wanna hear the kicker in all this?  Once I am done installing all those 105 updates on my customers computer, I have to restart the system and go back to the Windows Update website to get the updates for the updates I just installed.  Fun hunh?  The number of updates for updates you need usually depends on how many of the original optional updates you get.  For my customers I usually get everything available since I usually don't know what each and every customer uses his or her computer for.  That being the case, the number of updates for updates I have to get usually hovers around 11 or 12 depending on the hardware of the computer. 

This is why I am anxiously awaiting the release of XP SP3.  I imagine that once SP3 hits the Windows Update website, the number of critical updates that we will need to download will decrease.  But at the moment, right before the release of SP3, those of us who make our living off of fixing computers will have to deal with the nearly 1 hour or more of time it takes to get all those updates and install them on a system that is 4 plus years old. 

This same thing goes for Vista.  Vista SP1 is so close to the Windows Update website we can smell it.  Have you purchased a new computer with Vista lately?  It can take the better part of an hour to download all those updates and get them installed.  SP1 for Vista will be welcomed by many a bench tech in the industry. 

I recently had a very enjoyable Windows Vista experience.  Despite all of my previous notions about the operating system, it is possible to use and really enjoy Vista if the system it is being used on is designed well. 

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Often times I am asked by my customers which processor is the best and which is the worst.  It's a hard answer to give. 

So that being the case I am going to try something pretty bold here.  I am going to try to list the most popular CPU's on the current end user market from best to worst. 

Now I know this list may meet with some debate from various fanboys and CPU geeks, but I don't mind, let the debate roll.  I personally am an AMD fanboy, but I think I am old enough and mature enough now to know even when my team of choice is getting their butts handed to them on a silver platter. 

Now the list I am about to give you is what I came up with in the course of five minutes at almost 12:30 am.  I will most likely miss one or two.  If you notice one that I missed, just mention it in the comments and I'll get it added where I think it should place.  And before you start yelling at me, please be aware that I have not included any server CPU's on purpose.  I don't consider server CPU's to be end user CPU's.

Now, all that being said, here is my list of current CPU's in order from best to worst.

1. Intel Core 2 Extreme quad core
2. Intel Core 2 Quad Core
3. AMD Phenom Quad Core (This is very debatable as I really wanted to give the current Phenoms a tie with the current Core 2 Duo's)
4. Intel Core 2 Duo
5. AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core
6. Intel Pentium Dual Core
7. Intel Pentium D series
8. Intel Celeron Dual Core series
9. AMD Athlon 64
10. AMD Sempron 64
11. Intel Pentium 4
12. Intel Celeron D

Let the debate begin.

 Are Video Games Addicting?  Let's take a look at four true stories and find out.  Read More

Picking the right motherboard for your graphics card can be really tricky.  Read More

The Big Brands - Which Is Best - Part 2

Ok so in the first installment of this little mini series we discussed the hardware of the big brands.  Well now let's talk about software. 

I could be wrong, but from what I have seen, all of the big brands come with various types of software already installed.  Anti virus programs are common in all of them, which usually is Norton or McAffee (and if you have looked at some of my past blog posts you know how I feel about those two).  Some will have Microsoft Works, some kind of DVD burning/watching software, Adobe and other programs. 

They all also like to include specialized programs.  For instance, Gateway likes to install a program called Big Fix, while Dell machines have something similar called Dell Online Support.  Both of these programs are constantly connected to the Internet and are designed to deliver all of your software and hardware updates.  They also like to send you messages and sometimes will do other little things.  HP, Sony, Acer and Lenovo also have programs like these, I just can't remember what they are called. 

HP also likes to install a program called HP Organizer, which despite it's name, is not easy to navigate, use, or even look at. 

Regardless of which big brand you have or are thinking of getting, it's going to come with all kinds of software already installed, some of which you will use, most of which you won't.  To go along with that, half of the software they install is also configured to start up when you boot your computer.  This of course causes Windows to boot much slower as it has to start up all these programs.  It doesn't matter if you have the latest, fastest, Core 2 Duo with 2gb of fast memory and a large fast hard drive.  If the amount of programs running next to your system clock extends half way across your screen when you expand it, then your computer is going to be impaired. 

So when it comes to deciding which of the big brands is best, we don't get a lot of help for any of them when it comes to their software.  Every single one of them installs a vast amount of software that isn't necessary to operate the machine.  So in that regard they all fail.

If you know how to do it, I highly recommend formatting the hard drive of your newly purchased big name brand computer.  All of them come with the OEM Windows key on the side or back.  Use that key to reinstall your operating system, and then use the net to get the software you really want. 

What's funny about all of this is, I am not exactly free of the same faults with the new computers I build for people.  When a customer purchases a new system from me, it comes with an assortment of software to insure that their computer will be able to perform all the basic functions that they need to do.  Here is a list of what I pre-install on my customers machines.

Windows or Linux - With all the latest critical updates
Hardware Drivers - All the latest directly from the manufacturers website
Anti Virus Program - Customers choice but usually Avast or AVG
Office Suite - Sometimes Microsoft Office (if the customer wants to pay for it), but usually OpenOffice
Adobe Reader - The latest version from the Adobe website
DVD/CD Software - Whatever came with their burner, usually Nero 7 Essentials
Adobe Flash Player - Because its pretty much a requirement for web browsing
Java Runtime Environment - Another requirement for web browsing
Anti Spyware - Customers choice but usually Spbot and Ad-Aware combined

I set up all the programs so that only the absolute essentials start up when the OS starts like Avast.  Otherwise everything else only starts when the customer initiates it from the desktop.  By doing this the customer is ensured that when they boot their computer for the first time, that it will boot quickly and be ready to go with most all basic computer tasks.

As for the big brands I personally feel that they all fail in this department.  In an effort to make sure that the customer has everything they need, that have over done it and the end result is a computer that runs slower and takes forever to boot up. 

Again, if you purchase a new computer from a big brand, the very first thing you should do with it before anything else is format the hard drive and re-install the operating system, hardware drivers, and software from scratch to ensure that you have a computer that runs and performs the way you want it to and not they way the big brand thinks you want it to.  This is especially true for machines running Vista with only 1gb of memory. 

If any of you know of big brands that ship computers with minimal software, please let us know. 

In part 3 we will be discussing support and customer service in which we will really need some input from all of you.  I have dealt with a few of them when it comes to customer support, but only a few.  As I am writing this part, I am still compiling information for part 3, so it should be a good one.   

     April 2005, Microsoft releases Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.  Most assumed this was to go along with the mass production of 64bit processors from AMD and Intel.  It has been nearly 3 years since the release of XP x64 Edition and a year since the release of Vista x64 Editions.  So where is the support?

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 Well just in case you didn't notice, all of my old blog posts have been re-posted today.  This is because something went screwy with my Eggxpert account and for some reason, all of my most recent blog post going back to mid December were not showing on the site.  They were search-able if you knew what to look for, but they were not appearing on the main blog page or on my own blog page. 

So I put in a request to fix the bug and as it turns out, it was only with my account that this problem was happening.  However the Eggxpert staff worked really hard on my behalf and after a week or so of working on it they got the problem sorted out.  The only thing is that we had to delete my old blog and basically start over new again.  To preserve all of my previous work and to ensure that people would still be able to read what I have done, I reposted all of my previous articles.  So I apologize that my old posts are currently dominating the main blog page here on Eggxpert.  It was necessary however to get things moving along again. 

Moving on, I am finally going to get to work on parts 2 and 3 of "The Big Brands - Which Is Best?" as well as give you all some other articles to ponder over.  Enjoy

Rj

Blog Archive Repost

Christmas at a geeks house.

Published 03 January 08 02:51 PM | RjBass  Edit

Well kids, I'm back from my long holiday vacation and I'm finally writing my first new blog post in weeks.  I know I have some other topics that I need to get back to, but over the vacation I came up with the idea for this post. 

Christmas came and went this year just like it normally does.  My boys, ages 9 and nearly 12 made out their Christmas list starting back in October and on December 25th they were finally allowed to see what they got.  Opening their presents I started thinking "this is not your typical kids Christmas".  You see, my boys, like me, are geeks.  They have both built their own computers and are really into various computer hardware aspects.  So unlike many kids who often put allot of toys on their lists, my kids had computer components on theirs. 

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Blog Archive Repost

Protect Your Systems – Originally posted on 10 December 2007 

 Ok, so I have started writing part 2 of the Big Name Brands 3 part series, but then this idea  hit me. 

     So virus protection, and cleaning your systems of dust and dirt, I've covered those topics already.  But as I am sitting here in my kitchen in Kansas City, freezing rain is falling outside.  The Governor has already issued a state of emergency for Missouri (and for those of you wondering, their are two Kansas City's, with the bigger and better one located in Missouri) to prepare for what they are thinking will be hundreds of thousands without power come Tuesday evening. 

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Blog Archive Repost

The big brands!!! Which is best? Part 1 - Hardware

Published 07 December 07 10:17 AM | RjBass  Edit

Here we have an interesting topic.  The big name brands, and which one is best.  I am very anxious to hear peoples opinions on this one, and while were at it, I'll give you mine. 

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Blog Archive Repost

The perfect workstation!!!

Published 01 December 07 11:26 PM | RjBass  Edit

Small business, it usually means small budget.  So how do you get the most out of your small business network and workstations with the small budget? 

Well for those of you paying attention, I already covered the server a few blog entries ago.  So now let's talk about the workstations or desktops. 

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